The self-loathing, self-consciously middle-class Viv Groskop prepares to take on all-comers

When in doubt, Viv Groskop draws strength from her ultimate role model: Margo Leadbetter from 1970s sitcom The Good Life. 'She was confident, forthright, strong, a bit obnoxious, yes, but also a beacon of common sense. She's a horrible person but being less like Margo is what got us in this terrible mess in the first place.'

In Be More Margo, the 'self-consciously middle-class' comedian and writer Groskop will tackle snobbery, class and Britishness, three extra-provocative themes in these post-Brexit times. 'Most people have increased in prosperity in the last 20 or 30 years,' chirps Groskop, sounding dangerously sure of these, er, facts. 'My material on Waitrose shoppers and quinoa eaters used to sound twee and sweet, now it's a bit toxic, almost like a nuclear bomb!'

Groskop, a staunch remain voter, rewrote her show after the referendum, which she describes as 'a gift to all comedians'. For anyone not onboard with Groskop's politics, forget her love-hate relationship with the fabulously bourgeois and be-turbanned Margo, as the comic can certainly take a heckle. 'I'm personally quite self-loathing, which works well if there's any anti-English or anti-middle class sentiment in the room: I embrace it. I'll bring my boxing gloves and we can slug it out.' A notion that Margo would surely have found just ghastly.

Viv Groskop
BBC Radio 4‘s multi award-winner Viv Groskop presents Be More Margo, the follow-up to her sold-out five-star 2015 debut. This is a show about snobbery, class, Britishness and The Good Life, fuelled entirely by gin. Should we be classless now that we're ‘all in it together’? Or is it time to assert our inner…